Ready for some ‘Fansville’ college football TV commercials?

College football season will soon be here, and fans are keeping their fingers crossed that the Dr Pepper brand of soft drinks will be back for “Season 8” of the popular “Fansville” series of television commercials.

Keurig Dr Pepper – and its Los Angeles-based advertising agency Deutsch – are expected to make the big announcement any day now. The first batch of college football games will be televised on Saturday, Aug. 23.

The Sports Business Journal (SBJ) of Charlotte, N.C., selected Dr Pepper’s “Fansville” campaign as the best TV sports commercials in 2024.

 

Veteran SBJ reporter Terry Lefton (shown below) said: “‘Fansville’ is a mythical town where nothing’s more revered than college football – unless it’s Dr Pepper, the brand emblazoned on the town’s water tower. 

“The campaign from Deutsch, which debuted in 2018, has helped cement the soda brand as one of the sponsors most closely identified with college football.”

During Season 7, Dr Pepper “spots mined the expanded playoff field; rampant commercialization (the Aflac duck made a cameo appearance); conference defections; and even the (University of) Michigan sign-stealing scandal,” Lefton wrote.

 

He also cited one commercial in which caring parents warn their son that soccer is a “gateway sport, which could lead to lacrosse.”

The journey to being “SBJ’s Best Commerical of the Year for 2024” began with a field trip to the 2018 national championship game site in Atlanta, Lefton said. Marketers from Dr Pepper and Deutsch canvassed tailgaters from the contending teams – Alabama and Georgia – and were reminded that “fan” is indeed short for “fanatic.”

 

At the time, Derek Dabrowski (shown below), a senior vice president at Keurig Dr Pepper, said: “We found this rich, emotional territory outside of the stadium that was pure fandom, and wanted to be as immersed in college football as them.”

 

Ryan Lehr (shown below), an executive vice president at Deutsch, said the tailgating experience “gave us endless storylines across college football. We have this rich cast we can wrap around anything bubbling up with college football fans.”

 

Travis Swingler, who worked as creative director on the first “Fansville” campaigns at Deutsch, said the “depth of intensity” displayed by tailgaters was eye-opening. “People are spending thousands of dollars to show their team love and take part in these games on a regular basis. I’ve been around people who followed the Grateful Dead band around. But this was way more intense than that….”

Lefton reported that “creative triumphs are one thing; case sales are another. Dabrowski said Dr Pepper’s market share has grown four points since 2019…and in 2023, the brand edged out Pepsi-Cola to claim the No. 2 spot, behind Coca-Cola, according to Beverage Digest, a trade publication.

 

Dabrowski added: “Beyond business metrics, the marketer side of me knew ‘Fansville’ was working as soon as I began to see kids dressing as ‘Fansville’ characters for Halloween.”

 

The “Fansville” series has been compared to a comedic soap opera with an array of contemporary storylines. One plot dealt with the turbulence of college football’s transfer portal.

During the offseason, a powerful vortex sucked in much of State’s defensive line, and the starting quarterback is also in peril. The quarterback is holding on to a lamppost to resist the force.

The Fansville tailgate grill master (played by actor Jay Reeves) attempts to make a left-handed rescue…but when the quarterback asks for his right hand, too, the grill master explains that he’s not turning loose of the Dr Pepper can that is a permanent fixture in “his Dr Pepper hand.”

Alas, the quarterback is swallowed up and disappears. The dialogue acknowledges that “quarterbacks are replaceable,” but Dr Pepper is not.

 

 

Two of the leading characters in the Fansville commercials are former college football stars.

Brian Bosworth, who plays the town sheriff, was an All-American linebacker at the University of Oklahoma from 1984-86. He played two seasons in the National Football League before retiring due to an injury.

Eddie George portrays the town doctor while wearing a Dr Pepper “thirst-aid helmet.” He was a running back from 1992-95 at Ohio State University and won the Heisman Trophy in his senior year. George played in the NFL from 1996-2004.

 

 

Could they…bring Larry Culpepper back

to hawk ‘ice cold Dr Pepper’?

 

College football fans and Dr Pepper drinkers are wishing and hoping for a “homecoming appearance” in this year’s television advertising campaign to spotlight the former “Dr Pepper Guy,” its chippy vendor mascot named Larry Culpepper.

He burst on the scene in 2014 as the “concessionaire extraordinaire” and “created the college football playoff system.”

 

The popular character was rather unceremoniously dismissed as Dr Pepper spokesperson before the 2018 football season. Negative public reaction caused company officials to back pedal a bit and clarify that Larry Culpepper didn’t get fired. Rather, he had been “retired.”

The corporate news release stated: “Larry Culpepper has been a great part of our Dr Pepper college football sponsorship for the past four years and has helped us delight fans throughout the season. We’ve decided to take our football-related advertising in a new creative direction and are planning an all-new campaign this season.”

(Indeed, 2018 was the year that Dr Pepper rolled out its blockbuster “Fansville” advertising campaign.)

At the time, veteran actor Jim Connor, who portrayed Larry Culpepper, took the high road, using social media to speak to his followers:

“My TV days may be drawing to a close, but I’m not gone. Every time you’re sitting in the sun-soaked stands cheering on your favorite team, feeling the late summer/early fall swelter, I’ll be there, quenching your thirst with an ice cold, delicious, frosty Dr Pepper. From the first kickoff to singing the alma mater after a victory, I’ll always be with you.”

 

That was classy. Connor said Dr Pepper “rocked my world and was an incredible gig.”

Surely, a flash-back commercial featuring Larry Culpepper would be a big hit with viewers and an appropriate tribute from Dr Pepper to Jim Connor.

At age 66, Connor still has what it takes to charm audiences. A native of Omaha, Neb., he cheers for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers.

 

Connor did one year of college at Nebraska but graduated from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., where he majored in theater arts. Connor spent several post-college years in Boston where he worked as a carpenter while pursuing roles in theater productions and short films. He would later complete graduate school at the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver.

In 1992, Connor moved to Los Angeles for television and film opportunities as well as to appear in commercials and serve as a voiceover talent. He stayed busy and was able to string together enough commercials and small parts in feature films and television projects to make a living as an actor.

In 2014, Connor and about 500 other actors auditioned for the role of the Dr Pepper concessionaire in a national advertising campaign targeting college football fans.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune said: “Actors were given latitude to define the character and riff. Connor created Larry Culpepper, a loud, proud, gregarious huckster who seems to actually believe – in the face of constantly presented information to the contrary – that he created the four-team college football playoff system.”

The character was also described as “affable, wide-eyed, childlike in his zeal for the job and the game, appealingly un-self-aware and extremely clever.”

 

And he was straight out of the mid-1970s in his appearance – hair style, burgundy visor, headphones, clip-on flip-up sunglasses, work shirt, red wristband, khaki Bermuda shorts, black knee support sleeve, black fanny pack, white crew socks and black rubber shoes.

 

Connor was an excellent fit for the role, because of his strong background improvisational theater (improv), noted editors at Omaha Magazine. “The Dr Pepper spots had scripts, but there was all kinds of room for improvisation. Connor is an improv pro, bringing Culpepper, the fictional character, to life as an increasingly beloved traveling minstrel who transcended the Dr Pepper brand he was created to peddle.”

Connor told Kara Schweiss of Nebraska Public Media that the role of Larry Culpepper was right up his alley, so to speak. “He’s a man of the people, literally – he’s actually among the people in the stands. He serves the people. He can talk to anybody; he’s engaging. He’s spontaneous.”

In his younger days, Connor said he “wanted to be Robert Conrad on ‘Wild Wild West’ or like Paul Newman or Robert Redford in ‘The Sting,’ but he realized he wasn’t cut out for reading from scripts and performing in front of studio audiences.

 

“Improv is what I’m built for – shows where you have space to work more freely. That’s where I belong. That’s where I love to be.”